Liberty
Liberty 'is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, released on 21st July 2014 by XOX Records. Work on the album began in 2013, with Del Rey writing new songs whilst touring in support of ''Born To Die. The singer then worked on recording the material that she had written on tour, with producers Emile Haynie, Greg Kurstin, Rick Nowels and Jeff Bhasker. Despite Del Rey's success and popularity since the release of Born To Die, Interscope, her former label, believed that early demos recorded for Liberty would indicate that the same success would not be achieved with the new album. Del Rey refused to change the dark tone of the album to something more radio friendly, and bought herself out of her Interscope contract once the Born To Die Tour ended. The singer continued to record music for Liberty with the aforementioned producers, before signing a new record deal with the recently founded independent label XOX Records. Liberty ''sees Del Rey introduce a more rock inspired sound in comparison to the hip-hop orchestra sounds on ''Born To Die. Inspired by alternative rock genres such as psychedelic rock and the grunge scene from the 90s, the album is quite raw in it's production, with many of the songs recorded in one live take with minimal editing and post-production. Thematically, each of the songs represent Del Rey finding freedom throughout her own choices. Despite this, some of the songs have generated controversy due to lyrical subject matter like domestic abuse, submissiveness and death. Preceded by the popular singles Black Rose and Santiago, the release of Liberty proved to be a huge success. The first week sales of the album shattered sales records previously set by Beyonce and Coldplay, selling well over one million copies. Liberty has now sold over eight million copies worldwide since it's release. As well as Black Rose and Santiago, Liberty also spawned two more singles - Burnout and Take Me Home - which were also successful on the singles chart. Liberty ''was also named Album of the Year at the 2014 Host's Choice Awards. ''Liberty was later rereleased as Caged ''with six brand new tracks produced by Butch Vig, furthering the commercial success of the album. Track listing #Black Rose #Waiting #Beautiful Little Fool #Liberty #Color Me Blue #Santiago #Divine Tragedy #The Last Time #Burnout #Take Me Home #Dead And Cool #Rock Star Baby #Under The Covers Liberty: Caged On 4th October 2014, Lana Del Rey rereleased ''Liberty with a brand new edition, Caged. The album featured six brand new tracks, all written solely by Del Rey on the road during her Liberty Tour. A chance meeting between the star and producer Butch Vig led to the pair recording all six songs together in a matter of weeks. Caged was preceded with the release of a single, the title track, which debuted at the top of the singles chart with record sales for Lana, 920,000. The success of the single along with the release of two promotional singles, Poison and Pick Me Up, helped'' Caged'' propel Liberty back to the top of the album chart for it's third non-consecutive week, solidifying it's status as the biggest selling album of the season. Produced entirely by Butch Vig, Caged pushes the rock influences heard on Liberty even further, also drawing inspiration from various alternative rock sub-genres such as grunge and psychedelic. Just like Liberty, Caged features many instrumental and vocal parts recorded in one take with limited post-production, making for a gritty and live sounding aesthetic, reminiscent of Vig's work with rock bands such as Nirvana and Green Day. Lyrically, the concept of the album places a spin on Liberty's ''theme of freedom, with each of the songs discussing feelings of entrapment, frustration and rage. ''Caged was made available to purchase both as a standalone album, and packaged with Liberty. '''Track listing # Caged # Growing Pains # Poison # Pick Me Up # Bitch # Silver And Gold